I feel like I should ask for some input here. I suspect I know what many would choose, given this specific forum, but it's worth asking anyways.

I applied to a number of jobs Monday on ZipRecruiter. Tuesday morning, Company A called back, about 14 hours after I submitted my resume. The manager was polite, friendly, and asked me some questions about my background with their industry. An hour later, he called back and asked if I could come in for an interview Wednesday. I said I would be happy to. A few hours after that, Company B's manager emailed me and said he thought I would be a good fit and wanted to know if I could come in for an interview Thursday morning. I told him I was available and would love to.

Yesterday, I interviewed at Company A, a gun store. Not just any gun store, it's one you'd likely know the name of and may have ordered products from online. The interview went great, both managers said they had a good feeling about me, and I feel that my background in guitar sales would dovetail nicely into a job selling guns. I have been a firearms enthusiast all my life, and approaching 40, I've lost most of my youthful "I know everything" nonsense. It would be an amazing learning opportunity, and a chance to see and handle all kinds of guns and gear that I wouldn't otherwise.

Today, I interviewed at the Company B, a production company that makes some specialized industrial machinery. If you've worked flooring or concrete, you may have heard of this company and used their machinery. The managers said they had a good feeling about me, and my prior production experience working at the pickup company would dovetail nicely into an assembly job at this place. I know nothing about concrete, but that doesn't bother me. The shop is incredibly well-organized, neat, and quiet. The job would be very repetitive, but so was building pickups - incredibly so, and I was fine with that for the four years I was there. I wound up leaving because of the toxic work environment, the drama, and the commute.

Both jobs are a 20-25 minute drive, in fact, they're only a few miles apart on the same street. Both jobs, I'd be working 4-10's, Monday-Thurs. The gun store would be 9am-7pm with occasional opportunities for overtime with picking up extra shifts to cover for employees taking vacations and such. The production job would be 6am-4pm with opportunities to work overtime on Fridays, and sometimes even Saturdays, depending on how busy they are; in addition, half hour paid lunch with an option to take an hour lunch that I can opt to just take the hit on, or make up that time on Friday and work a short day. Both offer 401k, medical, and vision, but I get the feeling the insurance plan at the gun store isn't all that great because they were happy to hear that I have good insurance through my wife's job. The production job also offers dental, choice of two insurance plans (the guy stressed that they have very good insurance) and they match 100% up to 6% contribution to 401k (I haven't asked the gun store about their 401k stuff yet). The big difference is in the pay. I haven't asked the gun shop yet for details on pay - all that stuff, I was leaving for waiting for an actual job offer, but I think it's pretty much implied at this point. The job was listed as pretty much minimum wage. The assembly job would be starting me a fair bit higher, they offer raises and there's likely a much higher ceiling for pay rate.

Working at a nationally known local gun store would be awesome for a lot of reasons, but there's some serious drawbacks as well. Dealing with the public can be both great and terrible, there's more potential liability for me if I make a mistake (unwittingly selling to a straw purchaser, submitting an improperly completed 4473, etc.)plus getting muzzle swept on a daily basis and the idea of people bringing in and improperly handling loaded firearms doesn't exactly give me the warm fuzzies. The pay isn't great and the temptation to blow my paycheck on cool stuff that comes in isn't a new phenomenon to me - after all, I worked at a guitar store. My wife also isn't a fan of guns in general and thinks every dollar I spend on them is a waste, so that's a point of contention that would probably get worse if I work there.

Really, the only big downside I can foresee at the assembly job is potentially fighting boredom. But as much as I enjoy working with my hands while letting my mind wander a bit when it's not going to bite me in the butt, it's not necessarily a bad thing. I'd prefer boredom to the kind of "excitement" one could encounter at a gun shop. Also, the managers have a forge set up in the corner of the warehouse and are venturing into knife and sword making, and said they'd encourage me to go ahead and dive into it on breaks and weekends, if I wanted. That's random and unexpectedly right up my alley. I told them about some 01 tool steel blanks I'd roughed out and never finished and we went on 20 minute tangent talking knife making and looking at knives they've made.

This is not a position I've ever been in, where two companies were immediately interested in me, would be a good fit, and are effectively competing for me. I was up-front with both of them about the other. I told the managers at the gun shop that I had already agreed to interview with another company and one of them asked which one I thought I'd prefer, and I answered honestly at the time that I would prefer working at the gun shop. I'll be shadowing a manager there Saturday to see if it's what I want. When I told the production managers that yesterday I had interviewed at the gun store, their mood fell just a little bit, but it also led to another tangent talking guns and hunting. I told them I would email them back Sunday night with a decision. I could see myself at either place, but honestly, as I think about it and type this out, I believe I might be more interested in the assembly job. After touring their warehouse and hearing their benefits package and initial pay offer, it sounds like a more stable routine with a lot less liability and stress overall. Plus, I don't mind getting up that early and getting home earlier means I'd get to spend more time with my 6 year old son.

I'm going to email or call the gun shop manager Saturday when I'm done and ask him the benefits package questions and see where we end up. I don't want to be an employee who's trying to invite a bidding war, necessarily, but if they can offer the same pay as the production company, it would make it a lot harder decision to go with assembly.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: P220 Smudge,

Short answer. Go with the production job.

Production, done retail sales in my yout, would not be my first pick...

Go with production. The firearms industry is going crash back to earth after Nov 3rd.

I'd take the production job over retail and dealing with people in a heartbeat.

But I generally hate people, sooo...

Production job.

People who shop retail suck, generally.

Also, where is your advancement opportunity there?

So if I understand your situation you have not received an offer from either one of them yet....

Since both companies are somewhat palatable to you I would pursue both and see what their offers come to. Since they both know about the other I would be sure to ask them if their offer is the best they can offer (assuming that they do offer you the job) that way you can decide which is better for you but given the limited information I would say the production job has the better long term prospects..

JMHO.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
So if I understand your situation you have not received an offer from either one of them yet....

The manager at the production company said "just so you know, I'm planning to offer you a job, starting at [X pay rate]." The guys at the gun shop said multiple times that they were very interested and wanted me to do the thing Saturday and then immediately follow up with the one manager "and then we can proceed from there."

So, yes, but no.

Thanks, guys. I'm leaning very, very heavily towards the production job. Talking it over with family and a few friends as well.

quote:

Since both companies are somewhat palatable to you I would pursue both and see what their offers come to. Since they both know about the other I would be sure to ask them if their offer is the best they can offer (assuming that they do offer you the job) that way you can decide which is better for you but given the limited information I would say the production job has the better long term prospects..

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Good advice here. This guy has been around.

That would be a big NO on the firearms sales, even wholesale to agencies. noooooo

I've been retired going on 14 years but have many friends much younger who are still struggling in the trenches at all levels of corporate America.

Retail can be a thankless environment regardless of the commodity. Don't let the fact that your target consideration deals with guns sway you.

Production can be insulating but there may very well be management of various levels above you that will have you considering whether you could get away with murder or not. Changes due to retirement and promotion may provide relief as might shift or internal job changes.

All in all. I agree with those recommending the production scenario as it offers far more flexibility against crapola than the retail gun gig.

Production job. Better pay. Sounds far more stable and not as impacted by political swings.

Good for you to have a choice and sounds like you and I agree on the winner. I would encourage someone as sharp as yourself to go with the one that has advancement opportunities. Retail pay is on a lower tier than manufacturing pay.

edit: My ex (master's degree) chose a clerking job at a smallish industrial chemical mfg. over an office mgr. at the local YMCA. She ended up at 6 figures.

Wait....do you get an employee discount for the gun job??!!

Kidding aside go production.

The Production job for the benefits, future, stability and hopefully lack of drama.

If things go right the future will be a booming economy and just last year gun stores \ sales were tanking.

I couldn't imagine working with the general public on a daily basis.

Take production, for several reasons, I'll hit the highlights.

Gun sales are surging right now. My expectation, and those of several I consider knowledgable, is, depending on the election, they will drop significantly about February of next year, and many first time buyers will be selling off guns and ammo. Prices will drop, dealers will be buying up bargains, and the new guys, well, it's retail. They'll let you go or lay you off. This happens every year with the cycle, which is exaggerated during election years. I resisted gun store employment before I retired for this reason. The owner of my store says, "every 4 years we kill a pig."

Take the career, put some cash away, and come March, buy that gun you've been wanting. You'll find it cheap, and sleep better.

Another vote to production. You may want to do the Franklin thing: you know, draw a line down the middle of the paper, label one side "+" at the top, and the other side "-" then list the pluses and minuses down on their respective sides, and then take a long look.

From here it seems the plus side on the production gig would be a much longer list.

From a macro perspective, I'd suspect supplying machinery to construction industries will be a growth area for quite some time yet - low interest rates and all that.

Just checked my email, I have a formal offer from the production company. I'm going to ask him a few clarifying questions about sick/vacation time.


After thinking and talking about it, I'm actually kind of tempted to just go ahead and accept their offer today and be done with it.

I'm going to go against the trend and say go with the production job.

I will echo the overwhelming majority and suggest the production job has greater potential for the long run.

I'll also offer some unsolicited advice: do not let either company think you are using their offer for leverage to get a better offer from the other company (or vice versa). I have had candidates try this with me, and it almost always results in their disqualification. Mostly because nobody wants to take a chance that they might be hiring a manipulator. Best to not even mention that you have another offer in hand.